'Lord of the Rings' leads oscar nomination field with 13

DAVID GERMAINAP Movie Writer

Published Wednesday, February 13, 2002

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) -- The Academy Awards may come down to a duel between the film with the most nominations, "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," and a more traditional drama, "A Beautiful Mind."

The first film installment of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy classic earned 13 nominations Tuesday, among them best picture, best director for Peter Jackson and supporting actor for Ian McKellen.

But "A Beautiful Mind" -- tied with "Moulin Rouge" for second place with eight nominations -- is the sort of heavy drama members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences often favor. "A Beautiful Mind" beat "Lord of the Rings" for top dramatic honors at last month's Golden Globes.

Other best-picture contenders are "Gosford Park," Robert Altman's murder-mystery and class-war satire; "In the Bedroom," a low-budget tale of family tragedy and vengeance; and "Moulin Rouge," a glitzy, tragicomic musical set in 1899 Paris.

"Lord of the Rings" is last year's No. 2 box-office hit. But fantasies have rarely been taken seriously by Oscar voters, and an otherworldly epic such as "Lord of the Rings" has never won best picture.

"I certainly would say, being a realist, we're definitely in a sort of underdog situation," said "Lord of the Rings" director Jackson. "You certainly have to look at what's happened in the past."

Besides Howard, Jackson and Altman, best-director picks were David Lynch for "Mulholland Drive" and Ridley Scott for "Black Hawk Down."

"Lord of the Rings" may be positioned to dominate the technical categories and come away with the most statuettes come Oscar night March 24. The film's nominations include adapted screenplay, score, song, cinematography, costume design, editing, makeup and visual effects.

"A Beautiful Mind" has the advantage of two great performances that already have grabbed major film honors.

Crowe and Connelly won Golden Globes, and Crowe has become a favorite among Oscar voters, scoring his third straight best-actor nomination and winning last year for "Gladiator."

Along with Crowe, the lead-actor category includes two black actors for the first time, Will Smith as boxer Muhammad Ali in "Ali" and Denzel Washington as a bad cop in "Training Day." With Halle Berry nominated as an executed inmate's widow for "Monster's Ball," it was the first time since 1972 that three blacks were nominated in lead-acting categories.

Smith said commercial hits for himself, Washington, Berry, Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence have opened doors to more serious roles for blacks.

"As blacks have proven we can make money at the box office, proved we can open a movie and take it around the world and be successful, from that standpoint, I think other things will be created from that," Smith said. "That's always been my approach, make as much money as I can at the box office in order to open up the other roles for myself."

Other best-actor nominees are Sean Penn as a retarded dad in "I Am Sam" and Tom Wilkinson as a vengeful father in "In the Bedroom."

Joining Berry in the best-actress field are Judi Dench as British writer Iris Murdoch for "Iris"; Nicole Kidman as a star-crossed lover in "Moulin Rouge"; Sissy Spacek as a grieving mother in "In the Bedroom"; and Renee Zellweger as a Londoner pursuing romance in "Bridget Jones's Diary."

Spacek, a five-time nominee who won best actress for 1980's "Coal Miner's Daughter," said she was thrilled to be back in the Oscar hunt. Her last nomination came for 1986's "Crimes of the Heart."

"There aren't as many roles for women my age, and there are so darn many of us," said Spacek, 52. "We just all have to take turns, I guess. I'm just going to enjoy this."

and think in terms that I'll hopefully get at least one more job because of this."

Gene Hackman, a Golden Globe winner for "The Royal Tenenbaums," missed out on an Oscar nomination. Billy Bob Thornton, a double Golden Globe nominee for "The Man Who Wasn't There" and "Bandits," was omitted. And "Moulin Rouge" director Baz Luhrmann was snubbed, even though "Moulin Rouge" became the first live-action musical nominated for best picture since "All That Jazz" in 1979.

Kidman, shooting a movie in Sweden, said the film crew held up a placard after a take informing her she was nominated.

"There's a lot of surprises in life, and this is certainly one of mine," said Kidman, who took the Golden Globe for musical or comedy actress. "I never thought I'd be in a musical, let alone win a Golden Globe or get nominated for an Oscar."